Ferdinand

Online cards can be useful .. e.g. If you have a Curve card transactions can be tagged in the app and lists downloaded separately. Very useful. In addition since it is a debit card which immediately charges transactions to any of a number of cards you add to the app, you can charge debit card purchases to a credit card for reward points / cash back or to manage the time delay or even to feed debit card purchases through to a balance transfer card, while also effectively using a credit card where they are not accepted. Up to a limit cash from cash machines also earns whatever rewards your cc offers. F

Mind maps are useful for evolving visualisation. Not wanting to be morbid, however I hope that people with large volumes of files have a deletion strategy and instructions for their dearly beloved to dispose of the things that do not need to be kept or examined when the Grim Reaper finally comes to call. And something could be in place now since the grim reaper can come suddenly. When my father died we had literally rooms of files to peruse from a 40 year architectural practice. Unfortunately the house and garden was like a mini Calle Abbey .. big enough never to require a clear out, and it took literally months to examine everything just in case. Ferdinand

Tesco have a 46% discount on an excellent Prosecco at present. This one, which is a dry Prosecco. Reduced from £90 for a case to £48. It is delicious, and looks good so a good one to take when invited out or to give as a present. I have had about 3 cases of this over the last year or two, and I will be getting at least one more now. Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Docg Extra Dry Ca'Val Tesco Ergo Yum. (Spend another £12+ on something else and it is free delivery - though since it is wine by the case you may need to spend more). Ferdinand

Was it a fixed price quote ?

Welcome to the forum. Is the D for Richard, and are you the person who built those jet-powered world record speed cars? Fun, if so. However. To me the proposal for that cladding does not sound sufficiently "belt and braces". It could be mitigated by eg planting an evergreen windbreak reasonably close, which would help with the type of driving rain which might be a problem. I wonder if face-edge-face-edge cladding or vertical on vertical as suggested above (like a hit and miss fence with no inside gap) would be preferable? The second pic below is the horizontal version of what I call face-edge-face-edge. I can see that a vertical version of that might be beneficial depending on your prevailing wind angle onto the wall. It also depends on your board dimensions. Alternatively you could go horizontal and either detail carefully to disguise future staining, or do something interesting such as scorch your planks - if you are cash poor time rich you could DIY that finish. With all wood cladding, detailing is the most important thing after choosing the appropriate version for the context. I think it may be beneficial to look at 15 year old versions of your options - just see one and go and knock on the door. People will often love to talk about it and explain how they got what they wanted (or not). Ferdinand

Strange. Are the Council even technically correct in saying that when it is not in the nature of the thing to be illy accessible? Is a Yurt in a field accessible? Even static caravans at Mablethorpe are not fully accessible. How does that relate to George Clarke's Small Spaces programmes? He always says talk to the Council about PP before starting any project. Ferdinand

Hmm. Was that enforcement not because of the existence rather than the size of the home? Can you link to the petition / reports that explain exactly what they want to repeal? I would like to know more on this. On first reflection, I am not totally convinced that a 150sqft caravan or shack takes up much less space than say a 400sqft one. Not sure if a tiny one is actually much less expensive to create. For high density flats I would concede a difference. For an analogy, my Vauxhall Corsa does not take up much less space on the road than my neighbour's Audi Q7 .. because as with houses most of the road area is made up with of space between them. Cheers F

The other issue is that the garage may provide an easier way into the house if your garage door is less secure than your front door ... which suggests an external quality door. An alternative to steel could be a fibreboard external door. That would be better insulation wise but more expensive. Ferdinand

If you keep it all in the computer then you cannot see that it is disorganised, so it helps you feel better .

What are the hosting company refusing to help you with. Just removal of the content? One approach is to invoice them for the use of the pictures at a commercial rate, then follow up the debt in the small claims or Irish equivalent. Or are there any routes via Google to remove them from the search engine? F

I think they are false windows. A common trick in London. F

Always a good way to start, but doing a little more homework could also be beneficial. Now you need to consider how much material you can reuse, and think about whether reusing the same consultants would be to your benefit. You will need to get to know them a little to assess them etc, and may or may not need to pay to use their reports depending on what you do and how your new Planning App is written. If you use the same people a substantial amount of work will be reusable so make sure to drill down into the detail of what they are doing and how many days it will take to keep your bills reasonable. I would also talk to the Planning Officer to see what he says ... you never know he may say that you do not need to do quite everything. Or perhaps you plan to do it yourself. F

You now of course have to build a passive Wendy House as an early apprenticeship.

Looks good. What is that Major bit of kit at the Front? Do not recognise. And are those concrete polishers? THought for a minute you had a couple of Dune Buggies :->.

Fold the membrane over the top and overlap, then put whatever you want on top .. I usually do 2-3 inches of 20mm gravel on top or decorative, then if I want to I loose lay pavers. If the pipe is inside the membrane at the bottom of the gravel fill it stays clean. The pipe increases capacity should it need it since gravel makes most of the space to be stone not void. You want your holes to be smaller than the general size of your gravel. F

Needless to say a commercial mortgage will have a potentially higher rate of interest :-). Also, personal loans are now down around 3% APR, but the amounts are limited to around £25k, which will probably not even scratch the surface of this. Perhaps specialist banks may have something here in increasing that 25k figure. F

Can you spray the top with instant aerosol or spray gun adhesive as you dismantle each course? Or can you use some sort of industrial hoover? If a normal hoover can get soil from a posthole, then a big one could do this if attached to a suitable tank.

Presumably it helps to be Usain Bolton catch them :-). Who is of course now available.

I think you would need to ask a broker to find that. From their point of view it would still be a higher risk than a normal house for a conventional bank so that would require a premium. Perhaps worth talking to a couple of more specialist banks to see if you can treat it as an intermediate risk. Suspect that the size of your likely mortgage on a large plot in Londonish may justify the overhead. Or are you financially sophisticated, and can you get an interest free balance transfer or initial purchase deal card with a really high limit over several years? I have no idea how far these deals go, but you may be in a position to find out. I am aware of people who have put ridiculous amounts through their personal cards ... 5 or 6 figures per month ... in search of air miles by using it as the conduit for purchases for quite large businesses they own via expenses, so obviously unusual setups are achievable for a suitable customer. Best of luck. Ferdinand

Excellent spot. Like the videos. A little less impressed with the slight hero-worshipping content of the first H&R article. I appreciate it is a coup to get Charlie, but I hope it settles down in the further articles. I will be really interested in the detail of how he saves money.

Good taste in Teeshirt colour. I know a 15 year old who has just painted her bedroom that colour, and it looks quite cool. (Update: Her dad is going to repaint the skirting and the picture rail, and then introduce her to the concept of masking tape.)

My fencing spike / digging bar / pry bar seems OK. Smashes bricks like flies. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silverline-633869-Digging-Bar-1700/dp/B000T9R26W

When I did my "but of everything DIY" evening course at the local school / college, the lecturers also did bits of jobs from time to time. Since yours is an unusual technology, perhaps you could have one of those as well - also perhaps for supervision purposes if necessary? F

Having read this technical document, I am going with 900mm joist spacings for the roof, and 900mm spaced horizontals for the walls - and 10mm 2-ply or 16mm 3-ply polycarbonate depending on price difference. With the roof I am hoing with 6x2 joists between the current since they are only about £15 each, so that I can put a real roof on it should the need ever arise. Ferdinand

I am not sure how to tackle this directly, but the VOA and presumably the Welsh equivalent should have a helpline. This may be one where a specialist paid-by-results consultant may help - say if they get 15% of what you save. One elephant trap: is this one where your rebate will only backdate to the time you Appeal (or whatever the process), rather than when you bought it? Which puts a premium on Appealing quickly. Is there something you can do to the building to make it ineligible as a school by definition? eg take the roof off or disconnect the water or find asbestos or demolish? That needs a specialist answer. Or could you sublet it short term and retrigger the exemption, or rent it to a charity? F